Miss Kang's 5th Blog : Bringing It Altogether Post

Washington Elementary School Website:  http://washington.district87.org/pages/Washington_Elemen

At the beginning of the semester, I outlined a lot of personal and teaching goals in my blog post. I wanted to improve my language abilities, create meaningful relationships with my students, have solid lesson plans, increase my team working skills, and of course, make sure that all of my students understood the content. In the past, it was difficult for me to watch students struggle while the rest of their classmates excelled, so I made it a goal of mine to differentiate to meet all students’ needs. Luckily, this course had me create plenty of lesson plans to brainstorm ways to help different learners.
 Through classroom instruction and working with peers, I've added many new techniques to my arsenal. Another goal of mine that I believe has improved is my language, namely, my ability to read, speak, and write English. Coming to college was very difficult, since I surrounded myself with other Koreans in high school. My courses and the Writing Center have both helped me improve on these parts of language. Doing lesson plans, especially where I had to work with native English speakers, really taught me how to convey my ideas better and more professionally in English. I also believe I have gained valuable experience in creating lesson plans that will benefit me during my student teaching. This course has allowed me to see the different kinds of subjects that third graders learn, and how quickly they can really grasp a concept. Before this course, I had only worked with younger students, but now I feel more prepared in working with other elementary school grades. The lesson plans have also helped me organize my thoughts. When I get an idea for a lesson, I instantly think of things like “Okay, what materials am I going to need? How can I assess the students throughout the lesson? What are potential problems I could run into?” While these thoughts may have crossed my mind before, this course has really solidified the importance of knowing every step in a lesson before I begin. 

             Knowing what I know now, I still have goals for the future. (I mean, who doesn't?) I still want to improve my English further. The English language can be difficult to really master, so I am confident that this will be a lifelong goal. However, that doesn't mean I can’t improve further. I’m sure having more exposure to native speakers, especially once I am student teaching, will increase my language abilities even further. A goal that goes along with this idea is be becoming even more professional. I want to be able to connect with my future colleagues, and I want them to respect me as a valuable and serious teacher. Improving my language will help with, along with really taking an initiative when creating my lesson plans. I’m passionate about teaching, and I want my demeanor to reflect that. This summer, I will be working with different elementary schools and summer camps, which will make me more confident for my student teaching as well. This course’s clinical experience has taught me that kids are open and excited to learning, as long as the teacher shows and interest in the content and their well-being. I was impressed with how much the students wanted to volunteer their ideas. I never had a problem with no one wanting to talk, usually; everyone was trying to speak at once! This reminded me that teaching is what I want to do with my career, and that I really enjoy working with children. Even on days when I was stressed and did not feel like teaching, the students’ motivation always rubbed off on me. It was a great experience working with Mrs. Wolfe’s class, and I’m glad this course introduced me to her and her students. : )

http://yesseul91.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html  (Ms. Yeseul's Goals )

Miss Kang's 4th Blog : Science Focus at Washington Elementary School

For my clinical experience, I have been lucky enough to work with Mrs. Wolf on her social studies lessons. Lindsay’s Cooperating Teacher, Ms. Weddington, teaches the same students the science portion of their lessons. Since Mrs. Wolf exclusively teaches the social studies aspect, I have never witnessed Ms. Weddington’s science lessons. However, I will be teaching a science lesson in Mrs. Wolf’s classroom on April 9^th. Therefore, I have unfortunately not had the experience of seeing a science lesson for this age group in person, and I do not know the exact methods that Ms. Weddington uses. However, Lindsay has blog posts which outline her experiences in a clinical science classroom :  http://gladlyweteachandlearnisu.blogspot.com/ 

I do know that Ms. Weddington has been working on types of soil and the rock cycle in her classroom, so I will be planning to teach about that same topic. My idea for a lesson plan is to show the students a couple of videos on the rock cycle and have them fill out a worksheet based on the concepts that they have been reviewing. I know that this is not a very hands-on lesson, but I decided to use it since the other lesson I prepared will not be ready for the students. (Originally, I was planning to do an interactive lesson with baby chicks, but Ms. Weddington informed me that they will not be starting that unit until the week after I teach.)

One thing that I’ve already found difficult about science lessons is trying to make them as interactive as social studies lessons. Since I have a lot more experience working with social studies, it is easier for me to come up with activities that involve maps, people, and places. With science, a lot of the concepts are not as easy to show simply using pictures or stories. Many of the components happen without being seen, such as with the rock cycle. We obviously do not have enough time to watch rocks change over time, as that can take hundreds of years. However, the science book comes with lots of ideas for hands-on activities for the students so that they can get a glimpse of the concept in real life. I am sure that the authors of the book were very aware that science can be a difficult topic for younger children, so they provided lots of pictures and boiled down the lessons into interactive activities and real world applications.

I know from what students say in Mrs. Wolf’s classroom that science is not always a favorite subject for kids, since it’s not as easy to comprehend as something like the Civil War. In my future classroom, I am going to make a concerted effort to make science lessons as fun and hands-on as possible. Science often ranks lower on students’ favorite subjects due to its content, and because a lot of teachers make their lessons lecture-style. After my lesson on the 9^th, I hope to grasp a better understanding of what goes on in a science classroom and the techniques that Ms. Weddington uses to keep her students engaged.

This is the Wedsite that Ms . weddington use for her science lesson.

                   -www.pearsonsuccessnet.com 

             These are the rink that I am going to use for my Rock cycle science lesson.

                        1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAAeFB7Tv5A

2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55n_ep952ro

                        3.http://www.santeesd.net/Page/5827